In a long list of “1sts”, FranklyMLS.com is now the 1st Virginia/DC/MD MLS search engine that scrubs for Short Sales! (maybe the 1st in the nation). Also see my quote today in the
Wash Post, and my other articles defining Short Sales.
On the FranklyMLS.com spreadsheet results page, try a search for Alexandria, if you see an asterisk next to the price, that means it is “probably a short (more…)
My grandmother thinks I’m broke!
The other day she calls me and says in a thick accent,
“Are you still able to feed yourself? Why are you still in Real Estate.”
I asked why, and she proceeds, “I keep reading in the paper (more…)
(Update 6-16-08: This post was featured in the Washington Post)
I wrote about my distaste for Short Sales (aka Fake Listings), and how only 5% close in Northern Virginia (as of 2-08, but that might be changing). I guess now my distaste has shifted away from Short Sales, and more toward clueless (more…)
I officially have 100% proof that we have officially hit rock bottom.
No other indicators from NAR or the government have been as accurate as the proof that I have. I found a 100% correlation!
When My MOM SELLS, (more…)
I am officially launching FranklyMLS.com, the The First Wiki MLS!
Where BUYER AGENTS, in Virginia and DC, from multiple brokerages come together to ADD information and photo albums to listings they visit. MORE DATA & 1,000+ MORE PHOTOS!
THE “OLD 1.0 WAY”: (see all 31 MLS search engines here)
1) One-Way Information. “Here are homes for sale, as marketed by the listing agent. Take it, trust it, or leave it.” 
2) Photoless MLS Listings!
Sure they sell for $15,000 less but they are a pain for everyone. Oftentimes foreclosures or a listing by an underpaid or sucky agent have no (more…)
So you are buying a Virginia bank owned property, and REO or a Short Sale? You need to understand the various bank addendums that accompany them, or you might miss a $3,000 hidden fee.
But first, a quick background. Agents that are members of NVAR, and are REALTORS, use a 15 page contract that was painstakingly (more…)
So you’ve just looked at 10 homes and your brain is fried.
Everything starting to look alike? Oh No!
The solution: Buyer Agent Photo Albums.
Your buyer agent should be taking 30-50 photos per house (more…)
I was reading The Washington Post on Sat November 24 and I came across their “Real Estate Trends” report for Fairfax County. They compared the first 6 months of 2006 to the first 6 months of 2007, excluded condos, and they used data gathered through the courthouse (ie. not the MLS).
Out of the 47 zip codes, they said the #1 fastest growing zip code was 20170, Herndon at +14.4%. (more…)
Punchline: Buy homes with No Additional photos= Save $15,000 on a $400,000 house.
Buyers LOVE seeing tons of photos for each listing online. I think Realtor.com said that listings with multiple photos get seen 6 times more than listings with 1 photo. The tendency for buyers is to see a photoless house and think it is garbage and skip to the next listing (more…)
Buy like a Realtor!
This post is a link to a 6 minute video showing the process involved in buying a Bank Owned Property in Arlington Virginia, by a Realtor. Megan Buckley, a Realtor with FranklyRealty.com, recently bought her REO home in South Arlington. It was bank owned.
Foreclosures aren’t as frequent as people think in Arlington, and I still suggest looking at everything, but it is possible to get one for a deeply reduced price versus the previous owner’s purchase price.
Newspapers are filled with talk of the flood of foreclosures, but none that I have seen have taken a step back and defined all the different industry words for my new industry word: “SOL” (S* Out of Luck) Homes ™, and how to buy them. 2-3% of MLS listed homes are SOL in Northern Virginia. Can your agent find them?
It might seem odd that I’m writing about how to buy foreclosures listed on the MLS since some might have just finished reading my article Attn. Market Timers! The EXACT Best Day to Buy!
Well SOL homes can get you a 5-15% discount* if you
* Side shout: BusinessWeek did a great job in their article This Old Foreclosure Buying directly from a bank avoids some risks, but don’t expect a steal They both dispelled the 30-50% pennies on the dollar mentality people equate with foreclosures and how foreclosures of a year ago are different today, they no longer occur mainly on courthouse steps. They use the MLS)
So, let’s go over the SOL terms:
bankruptcy and foreclosure. The benefit sometimes to the bank is lower foreclosure costs and re-marketing hassles.
Examples of “Short Sales” in Alexandria on the MLS. Note that some listings say “not a short sale,” they will come up in an MLS keyword search.
Examples of REO Bank Owned in Virginia on the MLS
Examples of listings with the word auctions in them: Virginia Auctions on the MLS
Auction disclaimer: I am not an expert when it comes to Auctions. I still have yet to see ONE “real auction” in Northern Virginia. I think they don’t exist, but I can be proved wrong if you’d like (have at me in the comments section).
Dealing with SOL property are a PAIN. Expect counters to sometimes take several days, and sometimes months!
And an SOL home is NOT necessarily a better deal. Somebody might have paid $500k for it with 100% financing and the list price might be $480k as they feel the waters. I saw one short sale in my building that started at $600k (they paid $590k). It was overpriced, so it sat. Then the seller/bank got serious. They did a drastic drop to $530k. It sold for full
price (while I had 4 people come to me wanting to offer $480k, and they missed out). This was 1 of 2 best priced units in the building over the last 2 years. Another short-sale came on and was sold in 4 days, so if you want these, be ready to act FAST.
So how many of these are there EXACTLY on the MLS?!
Homes that are SOL can be found by having your agent search the Realtor Remarks for keywords, or try it yourself on the new keyword based FranklyMLS.com: REO, foreclosure, bank, pre-foreclosure, foreclosed, forclosure*, short sale, auction, third party, 3rd party. *9% of the time this word is misspelled!
In Arlington:
Update to article: I thought I’d run some data from Woodbridge. To my amazement 35% were SOL! This blows my mind!
In Woodbridge
MORE DATA ON 6 NOVA AREAS: 48% of MLS homes are SOL (Foreclosure etc) in Herndon ($300k-400k)
This is shocking!
If you do plan to buy, you need a good agent to know when to spot a “better deal” (remember I don’t believe in “good deals” until you sell your place. See “Buyer’s Market?” No Such Thing As a “Good Deal”)
NEW SYSTEM TO FIND SOLs: MLS EMail alerts.
Have your agent sign you up for alerts based on your price range, area AND these SOL keywords in the Realtor Remarks (different than the Public Remarks). If your agent can’t do it, have them email me, I’ll show them how. If you don’t have an agent… (sorry I tried to hold off as long as possible) welcome to FranklyRealty.com . I’ll set it up for you.
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-Written by Frank Borges LL0SA Virginia Broker FranklyRealty.com
Ps. Please send typos and corrections. Disclaimer: Data gathered from MRIS’s MLS database. Distressed homes
Frankly, the #1 questions I get are market timing questions like: “Have we hit bottom?” and “Is NOW the time to buy?” Well, after months of thinking and market analysis I’ve discovered the EXACT time you should buy, down to the DAY!
So you no longer believe the “Buy Now!” campaign from the National Association of Realtors. Especially since The New York Times quotes the former Chief Economist David Lereah as acknowledging he had gotten it wrong (more…)
Frankly, buyers say they want a good deal, but oftentimes they aren’t willing to go through the emotional roller coaster the buying process can put them through. A good Realtor will try to shelter the buyer from stress, but inevitably it is up to the seller and their threshold for being aggressive.
For the most part I don’t really believe in the idea of a “Good Deal” (more…)
Some Realtors think their job is to make client’s feel all warm and fuzzy by making the buyer think that they got a “Good Deal.” Kind of like how almost everyone who buys a car walks out thinking that they got a steal of a deal!
I don’t believe in this. I am not hired to be a comforter. I’m hired to get the most suitable property at the best price possible, and to do so aggressively, if that is what the client requests (more…)
Joule condos, formerly owned by Ed Peete (Arlington Virginia) recently announced a transformation from condos ownership to apartment rentals. Canceling hundreds of contracts in the process (more…)
What is an “Exclusive Buyer Agency Agreement”?
This is a contract that a buyer is oftentimes asked to sign by a buyer agent Realtor. In part it commits the buyer to use this one agent exclusively for several months.
Why in the world would you sign (more…)
This blog is supposed to be about the inside scoop on real estate right?
Well lets talk about a huge hush hush: Realtor Rebates!
Wow, I said it, and I put it in writing. A non-Rebate firm educating their customers (more…)
(Includes YouTube How to Video on signing up for email alerts)
Homesdatabase.com is one of the best local Virginia MLS search websites. My personal account is Homesdatabase.com/frankly
One major flaw is that if you go through my account there, it looks like I am the listing agent for each of the 1,000+ properties.
I get so many confused inquires
that I’m now just going to link to this Blog to answer everything.
First of all it isn’t your fault! The design is horribly misleading making me look like the listing agent for everything. You might think this benefits me, but it creates more hassle.
BACK UP, WHAT IS HOMESDATABASE.com?
Homesdatabase.com is a service that Realtors pay annually to allow their customers to search the MLS and sign up for free (self-directed) email alerts. It is run by MRIS, the backend provider of the local MLS. I picked this service because it oftentimes has the most up to date information, as in every 15 minutes, while other national sites can be days late. Also HDB posts every photo that is on the MLS, while many other MLS sites pull from MRIS and opt NOT to show all the photos (like Realtor.com). And lastly a Realtor with an account there can choose, as we did, to show full addresses (many Realtors opt to hide this).
WHY ARE YOU LISTING 1,282 Homes?
I’m not. The problem is a design issue. Once you’ve surfed into my Homesdatabase.com/frankly account, you get a harmless cookie. That cookie keeps my ugly face on every page of your searches. Many people will look at 100 homes and think that I somehow am so great that I landed 100 active listings. When in fact the actual listing company is buried deep on the page.
Then a confused home buyer will press the “More Info Request” button. Instead of a form with an actual question, HDB just sends us an email with NAME: John Doe EMail=John@Doe.com and the MLS#. No question, no nothing. To which I have can only reply “How can I help you.” Half of the inquiries already have a buyer’s agent and they think I’m the listing agent (you shouldn’t be contacting the listing agent anyhow).
If you have a buyer’s agent, you need to contact your agent for info on the property. Send them the MLS#. If you don’t think you need a Buyer’s agent, read my blog: I Need A Buyer’s Agent! But For My Car.?
So if you sent me a cryptic message (no fault of your own, this is a HDB design flaw), I would love to help you buy this home, but I am not the listing agent and I didn’t try to trick you. Instead I would work for you (not the seller) to help you get the best price.
Here is how you register for a free account and start getting daily email alerts:
If you are early in your buying search, make sure to read the rest of this blog including:
Good luck!
Feel free to email me if you want more tips on how to search and sign up for free daily email alerts according to zip codes.
- Written by Frank Borges LL0SA- Broker/Owner FranklyRealty.com
703-827-4OO6
If you like this post, sign up for new blogs daily, use the form on the right of the page. 100% Spam-free.
Videos at YouTube.FranklyRealty.com
Keywords: Housing bubble? Arlington, Alexandria, mls, homes, Real estate, Virginia, Alexandria, 22201, 22314, Fairfax Va, DC Realty, Realtor
Update: a Part 2 link is at the bottom.
MRIS stands for Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. They are the company that provides the Washington DC area MLS system for all Realtors. They also provide data to consumers and the press to reveal how the market is doing. The only problem is that the data is limited and can easily be misinterpreted without giving proper clarification.
So I set out to recreate the numbers and I finally think that I understand how they came up with their data. I don’t question whether the data is correct, I just question how it is presented.
I believe now that the “% of Asking Price” means the “% of the last and lowest asking list price to the sold price, excluding seller subsidies.” So if a house was initially listed at:
Hypothetical example:
$600,000 Starting Price
$500,000 Lowered List Price
$495,000 Contract price
$10,000 Seller subsidy (about average for 22204)
________
$485,000 Net (counting the $10,000)
= a 1% drop using MRIS’s data
= a 20% drop from the top number.
So if you were to include the subsidy and the starting price, the price drop would be almost 20% lower, yet this hypothetical numbers would be reported by the MRIS as a 1% drop ($500k to $495k).
So back to recreating the actual numbers from MRIS. (My Excel document is available upon request.)
I took all homes for the period of 7/01/06 to 9/30/06. I found 72. This number is off from their their 128, I’m not sure why.
From this data I was able to come very close to recreating their numbers (option 1 below).
1) % of Final list price was 98.4% (vs their 98.6%, no big deal).
2) % of Final list price MINUS seller subsidy= 96.8%
3) % of Original list price MINUS seller subsidy= 94.25%
4) % of Highest price (prior Realtor or listing#) MINUS seller subsidy= 92.2%
Using the $600k example from earlier, #3 takes the starting price of $600k and counts the $10,000 seller to make a final closed price of $485,000. However #4 above takes into account if the listing had a prior agent with an even higher price. So with #4 I took the starting price of a house regardless of how many Realtors had tried to sell it, or how many times one Realtor relisted it to reset the Days on the Market.
So while the MRIS data is not necessarily incorrect, the public should know that it does NOT mean that the average house in that zip code only dropped 1.4% from what the seller started with. That number is probably closer to an 8% drop once you count the seller subsidy (which was near 0 a couple years ago) and the initial starting price.
Recalculated drop for 22204: 8% (92.2% of the starting list price, including subsidies)
Conclusion: Don’t assume information that is given to you is correct, question how the numbers are compiled.
Update: I have a Part 2 on this posting: Part 2: Illegal MLS Fudging. 20% Chance You’ll See 1.
And make sure you see the 22 other blogs on shady agent tricks and things that buyers should be aware of. Blog.FranklyRealty.com
- Written by Frank Borges LL0SA- Broker/Owner FranklyRealty.com
703-827-4006
Videos at YouTube.FranklyRealty.com
Keywords: DOM DOMM DOMP CDOM Days on the Market, Housing bubble? Arlington, Alexandria, MLS MRIS, search, Homes, Real estate, Virginia, Alexandria, 22201, 22314, Fairfax Va, DC Realty, Realtor
